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Bomber Command Commemorative Mission
July 19, 2012
RCE
AIR FF
SPECIAL LIFTOUT
6
WWII RECORD
HOLDER TELLS
OF HIS RISE
DAVID Leicester was once the
youngest squadron leader in the RAF
or RAAF.
He began his WWII service after
joining the RAAF at the age of 18 in
August 1942.
His time in Bomber Command
had him flying Halifax and Lancaster
aircraft in three squadrons, 158, 640
and 35.
He flew 68 missions in total
-- 31 in the Halifax and 37 in the
Lancaster.
"My wing commander was
forbidden to fly
any more opera-
tional missions
because he had
completed his
tour of opera-
tional flights
and was made a
squadron com-
mander," Mr
Leicester said.
"But after
sitting behind
a desk too long
he got itchy feet
and decided he
would break with
tradition."
What this commander did next
was to dramatically change Mr
Leicester's war-time role and experi-
ence.
"He didn't have his own crew to
go flying, so he formed one with the
senior navigation, bomb, gunnery
and wireless crew members of the
squadron," he said.
"They went on a mission and
they got shot down. So all of the
leaders on the squadron were lost
and we didn't have any replace-
ments."
Mr Leicester was then asked,
aged 20 and a flight sergeant,
to be a replacement flight com-
mander.
"At the time I was seen as
the most experienced pilot in
the squadron and had the most
experienced crew, having flown
23 missions in the Halifax," he
said.
"I was asked to be a tem-
porary squadron leader until a
replacement was found and at
the time I was the youngest ever
squadron leader
in the RAF and
RAAF."
Mr Leicester's
reaction to his
rapid commission
and promotion in
July 1943 was one
of awe.
"It was such
an important job
andIgotalotof
help from two
other flight com-
manders, one of
whom was a New
Zealander who
took me under his
wing. They got me on the right
track," he said.
Mr Leicester said the job was
not difficult, but the one aspect
of it was demanding.
"The worst part of it was allo-
cating aircrews to night missions
and knowing they might not
return home."
He returned to Australia in
August 1945 and retired as a
squadron leader.
During his visit to London
attending the Bomber Command
commemoration activities, he
was lucky enough to meet royalty
for the second time.
"I was in the front row of the
Bomber Command Memorial
dedication ceremony and the
Queen came up to me and asked
me where I was from and I
replied I was from Australia," he
said.
"I then told her I had received
my DFC and bar from her father
during WWII.
"It was absolutely
amazing for me."
'The worst part of
it was allocating
aircrews to night
missions and
knowing they
might not return
home.
-- David Leicester, veteran
Flights to
remember
Lionel Rackley
had a narrow
escape on his
last operational
mission, surviving
his falling
aircraft, only to
be dragged by a
train, SGT Andrew
Hetherington
writes.
LIONEL Rackley nearly didn't
make it home from his 18th
mission for Bomber Command
in WWII.
Mr Rackley -- a Lancaster bomber
captain who started flying with
630SQN in 1943 at age 21 -- recalls
the death-defying mission well.
"The mission was flown over
June 20-21, 1944, and it was the first
operation to Germany after D-Day,"
he said.
"Our target was an oil installation
and there were only 130 aircraft on
the mission, which was a small mis-
sion for us. In the end, 37 of those
were shot down. The flight plan had
us flying between two enemy fighter
beacons and we knew there would be
aircraft after us."
Unknown to Mr Rackley and
other Lancaster crews at the time, the
Germans had changed their fighter
tactics of attacking allied bombers.
The German JU-88 was now
equipped with upward firing guns
and this, with a change in tactics, sur-
prised Mr Rackley and his crew.
"One of them flew underneath
us where we couldn't see him," Mr
Rackley said.
"He tried to fire at our fuel tanks,
which were in the wings, and he
ended up missing them, hitting all of
my control surfaces. I lost my ailer-
ons altogether, the rudders and eleva-
tors were all badly damaged so I had
very little control at all."
Mr Rackley and his crew quickly
dropped their bomb load when they
were hit.
What followed was a struggle to
keep their crippled aircraft airborne.
"We went into a straight dive and
it took the flight engineer and myself
with my feet on the instrument panel
to get the aircraft flying straight and
level again," he said.
"We then tried to turn the aircraft
around, as we didn't want to bail out
and be prisoners of war. It took us
10 minutes to do a 180-degree turn,
coaxing it around, as the rudders were
very sluggish."
After successfully making their
turn the right rudder pedal sank to
the floor. Mr Rackley had to fly the
Lancaster with both feet on the left
rudder pedal.
"I flew like this from Germany to
England and I thought it was worth
the risk, as I thought I had enough
engine power," he said.
"I knew we couldn't land the air-
craft and we decided to bail out most
of the crew as we crossed the English
coast near Ipswich. The engineer
and I continued until we decided
that the aircraft wasn't taking much
notice of us and we bailed out near
Bedfordshire at 12,000 feet about two
in the morning."
Having thought his ordeal was
over, Mr Rackley had to still worry
about the crewless aircraft.
"When I bailed out, I pulled the
parachute cord, I was floating down
and I looked up and could see and
hear the Lancaster circling above
me," he said. "The next time it came
around it was below me and I stopped
worrying."
The aircraft eventually crashed in
a farmer's field across the road from
a village.
Mr Rackley's descent was in total
darkness due to the blackout rules.
"When I was coming down
there was nothing I could see on the
ground, so it felt like I was going
up at times. Then as I hit the ground
I could feel myself being dragged
along and I could hear the train
wheels beside my ears," he said.
With his parachute snagged on the
train, Mr Rackley lost consciousness
as he was dragged along. The next
thing he remembered was waking up
next to the railway tracks.
He didn't have to wait long for
help, with a goods train chugging
towards him.
"As the engine came level with
me I called out to the driver and they
stopped for me. The engine driver and
fireman got out, shone a torch on me
and I told them I was RAF," he said.
The crew of the train decided
to assist him and put him in the
guard's van of the train, not really
sure of who he was.
"The guard wouldn't get in with
me and later the train stopped at a
signal box and they phoned forward
to Luton telling them about me.
When we got there I was taken in an
ambulance with a police escort to the
Luton hospital."
Mr Rackley had a dislocated
shoulder, cuts to the head and skin off
his body.
He spent four months in hospital
recovering and eventually got back
to his squadron in November 1944.
He didn't fly an operational mission
again.
"I was on light duties and test
flew Lancasters after they came out
of maintenance. I also flew aircraft
with the base air commodore's flight
until I was sent home in April 1945,"
he said.
YOUNG GUN:
Veteran David
Leicester enjoyed
looking around the
RAF museum at
Hendon with
his son
Michael.
MEMORIES:
Veteran Lionel
Rackley inspects a
Lancaster Bomber
at the Imperial War
Museum, Duxford.
Photos: SGT Andrew
Hetherington